Lent - Saturday

Yesterday Josh and I attended the Good Friday service at church.   It was unusual in many ways - the room was set out differently from normal, we had communion right at the beginning, the lights were gradually turned out throughout.   But the most striking thing was right at the end when the whole congregation just sat in complete silence, in the almost dark.  Nobody moved.  The only sound was the air conditioning system gently purring.   There were a couple of hundred people  - including quite a lot of children all sitting completely still in absolute quiet.   It was profound.

We have lost the art of being totally still and quiet.   But it is good for us.

This Easter Saturday as we wait for the celebrations coming tomorrow let us sit quietly and at peace, resting our souls and spirits in the understanding that we are hugely loved, deeply forgiven and totally accepted.

Lent 45 - washing feet

Have you ever been in a gathering where someone has decided to do a spot of footwashing?  😊


I have, and it always provokes a variety of responses.   Probably 10% of people whip off their socks and hold out their feet.  About 50% will look uncomfortable and say things like ' If I'd known I would have worn clean socks'  or, ' Im wearing tights, Im not sure how this is going to work'.  Probably 30% will be more than a little uncomfortable and will ask to be excused or give some reason why they really cant do it - but may well be persuaded.  And then there will be 10% who totally and genuinely freak out and get somewhat distressed at the very thought of anyone going near their feet.

Interesting isnt it?  I wonder if Jesus got a similar response when He washed the disciples feet.  It was more of a usual occurrence in those days of course, because people wore sandals and the terrain was dusty and hot .  So usually a servant would wash feet when someone entered the house.  I suppose a bit like us today asking if we can visit someones bathroom when we arrive for a visit.   Perhaps the disciples didnt feel so awkward about the actual foot washing part - but they most certainly did feel completely bewildered and outraged and offended at Jesus taking off His robe and getting down on His hands and knees to them.  It was so NOT the done thing.  It was probably considered shameful.

Ive been reading a few things about this event and most commentators seem to focus on the servant thing.  Jesus humbling Himself to serve those who were about to desert and betray Him etc.   But I was struck by another thought -  what if Jesus is not only telling us to wash each others feet, but demonstrating how we are to do that.  Perhaps, in order to truly serve others with humility and offer them fresh living water to wash the dirt of the world from their souls, we are required to ' undress'.   In those days, as in these, people were judged by what they wore.  You could probably tell the fishermen from the innkeepers,  you could definitely tell the Pharisees and the ruling classes from the rest.  Jesus takes off His outer garments - those things which make Him different from others, and stands in his undershirt.   In Hebrew the undershirt was referred to as someones nakedness ( because without it they would be completely and utterly naked)   So Jesus becomes as good as naked.  Just like everyone else.   Its ironic that when we picture Jesus on the cross we always see him with a strip of cloth modestly covering His private parts.  But He was almost certainly crucified naked.   The time He was wearing a piece of cloth round His waist was when He was washing feet.

Its hard to truly serve someone when we feel superior to them in some way.  It is equally hard for someone to receive service from us if they consider themselves to be unworthy or us to be elevated.   True love one to another - the sort Jesus was demonstrating at the Last Supper - can probably only really be achieved when we are giving and receiving as equals.

 15I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you. 16Truly, truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.  John 13.

What do I wear which sets me apart from my fellow man?  My pride?  My job?  My levels of education?  The culture into which I was born, my accent, my earnings, the school I went to?  The very clothes I wear communicate something about the person I am.  As do my expensive haircut, nails and handbag.    None of these things are bad in and of themselves.  But when we want to reach out to serve others maybe we need to be aware of just what we look and sound like and make every effort to 'take off' anything which could become a barrier to someone receiving blessing, forgiveness, mercy and love.  We most certainly need to divest ourselves of attitudes of superiority and pride.  This becomes easier when we recognise that we are the greatest of sinners and that even we have been washed by Jesus, He who had no sin.

lent 44 - blisters

A few days ago I burned myself.  For reasons which arent worth going into right here, a drop of melting plastic landed on the tip of the middle finger of my right hand and instantly burned through several layers of skin and formed a blister within seconds.  It was super painful and despite the fact that I got myself to a cold tap within seconds and let it run over the burn for a good while I ended up with a blister the size of my finger tip.   It has subsequently burst and is now an angry red sore spot which, remarkably, still seems to have fingerprints despite being a deep-ish gash.   I wonder how deep fingerprints actually go??

I did think about the blister on the day it happened and wondered if there was some spiritual lesson to be had from it.  But nothing came to mind so.....

And then yesterday I was in Belfast with the boys and ended up walking for miles because I hadn't planned what I was doing or where I was going so ended up covering alot more ground than I really needed to.  And I hadn't taken into account that I was wearing my boots.  Which were rubbing my toes.   I could feel my feet starting to get sore as I traipsed across town and by the time I got back to the car I was pretty sure Id have blisters.  Sure enough, on getting home and removing socks I found four whopping ones, two on the left foot and two on the right, on the tops of my toes.  Ouch.

Having had five blisters in a week  ( weird) I surmise that the Lord wants to talk to me about them  😊   As usual Im thinking as Im typing....

Blisters are formed because damage is occurring and the body is trying to protect itself from harm.   It is amazing really when you think about it that the body can react so quickly to a threat and make the serum fluid within seconds and send it to the affected area, and the skin can stretch to accommodate this protective barrier of fluid.  God has designed us to heal ourselves.  And if we are the body of Christ then maybe we, the church, are designed to heal ourselves too.   When one part of the body comes under attack or threat of injury do we amass to surround and protect the injured part?  Do we form a protective covering over those who are fragile and vulnerable?  Can we allow ourselves to be stretched for a time so that the wounded person is given time to heal?

Recently Keith and I have been involved in praying for a few people who are struggling with various things.  Rather than just pray ourselves, Keith has felt strongly that we need to get a group of people involved in each situation.  We have gone to homes and spent a good few hours praying ' properly' into things which have been hurting the individuals and families concerned.   It started when we took a group of people to pray for a herd of cattle which had been dying for no apparent reason over a number of weeks.   We went to the cow shed and stood in the dark and took authority over whatever was killing the cows.   They stopped dying .    We then went to the house of a family whose daughter was suffering from acute anxiety and depression.  Lots of us went.  We sang, we talked, we prayed, we listened to God.  The family was super blessed.  The very next day there was a significant turn around for the young person concerned. Not a miracle, but progress.   Next we went to pray for a guy who had slipped a disc and was flat on his back in agony and unable to work.   He didnt get healed - but what did happen was that for the first time he felt confident to pray out in public himself - and he prayed so eloquently and was so released and freed in doing so that something shifted in his walk with Jesus.    It has been different groups of people every time, but it has been the body coming together to stand around something sore and hurting to provide some protection and shelter and care and love.
We have perhaps been God's blisters  😊

Who do you know who is sore just now?  Perhaps it it you who has been chaffed and rubbed up the wrong way and irritated?  Or maybe burned?  Is someone you know walking in ill-fitting shoes? Perhaps it is time for someone to come alongside and gently suggest that they need to go up a size - step out of what they are currently in and into something new. 

The blister doesnt last long.  The body heals itself quickly.  My poor toes will probably not be puffy and sore by tomorrow.  But I wont be wearing my boots again for a while.  And next time I go for a schlep around town I shall wear something more comfortable!!

( If you are squeamish about toes...look away now!!  )

burned finger - blister removed

post shopping toes  :(

lent 43 - notre dame

I wonder what reaction you have had to all the coverage of the Notre Dame fire.

Ive had lots of competing thoughts.  The first one was neatly summed up by Ben who was listening to coverage in the car on the radio as we went to his guitar lesson.   ' It's just a building!!'    Yes, exactly.  Just a building.

But, it was started in 1160 and took nearly 100 years to build.  With no modern technology and very little understanding of things like mathematical equations and geometry.  There are so few buildings around which are so old and have cost so much in terms of man hours and lives to build - so the loss of it is sad and new-worthy.   But it can be rebuilt, and it has suffered various fires and damage and repairs in the past.  Its all part of its story. 

Secondly I was so saddened to hear that the cathedral had been in need of 1.5 million euros worth of repairs to stop it crumbling to dust and was struggling to find people to invest in it.  Yet the day after it is nearly razed to the ground billionaires are coming forward offering cash to restore it.  Why did it take disaster before people wanted to invest in their national landmark?

Thirdly, there is something going on in France.  I dont pretend to keep up with international politics, but the yellow vest protests have been in the news, and of course France has been playing a major role in the Brexit negotiations.  There is a weird disconnect between the fact that France has separated the church from the state and is striving to be a secular nation, and the outpouring of emotion about the cathedral fire.    I have felt in the past when there have been major fires in the UK that God's hand has not been far away.  It is as though He wants to get the attention of an entire nation by sending down fire.   I dont know what He is saying to France at this time but He most definitely has something to say.  Perhaps He just wants to show the world that there is no such thing as a secular state and that people still value and treasure their spiritual heritage  regardless of whether the state wants to acknowledge this or not.

Fourthly we are in Holy Week and the photograph of the cross shining out in the midst of the smouldering rubble is a powerful image of hope.  Out of the grave comes forth life. In the midst of death and darkness is light and hope.  

I like what the Queen said in her message to the French people - she said she was sad for the people who worshipped there.  Yes, because before it was a tourist attraction and an ancient monument it was a place of worship.  The reason it is such a magnificent edifice is that for a hundred years people who fervently believed they were called by God to use their talents to build it, worshipped Him in their crafts to create a beautiful house of prayer.  And ever since, people have stepped inside the lofty, vaulted ailses to gaze upon the beautiful stained glass and sit in prayer or listen to a choir singing and still their hearts before their creator.

Perhaps the fire will cause the people of Paris to examine their hearts and realise that they have lost touch with the God for whom Notre Dame was built.   I am sure the Spirit of God is calling to people across the city of Paris this week and reminding them that they are spiritual beings, made for communion with Him, designed to worship and with a heritage in God which goes back centuries.  He is calling that over us too.

Lent 42 - it is well with my soul

 Today Im posting this, because it is powerful, it speaks for itself and its a great way to spend six and a half minutes.   This sung version does not include all the verses - which is a shame cos the ones which are missed out are powerful .   But if you are having a bad day, a bad week, a difficult life, be encouraged that it is possible to suffer well, and to know peace.   Our suffering saviour knows what it is to lose everything, to be in pain, to despair to the point of sweating blood.   But through it all His eyes were fixed elsewhere.   So were Horatio's .  

Lord Jesus , fix our eyes on Your lovely face and smile on us that we might hold on to the end and run our race well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX_50AERr8M

Lent 41 - hidden in plain sight

Driving to church yesterday down a road I have travelled hundreds, if not thousands of times, I noticed a house I'd never seen before.  It is a derelict building, and obviously it has been there for much longer than I have been travelling down that road , but for some reason I have never noticed it before.   How can that happen?   Well, perhaps it had been hidden from the road by shrubbery and overgrowth which someone might have cleared away recently.   Or maybe its the season - the leaves not fully out on the trees yet affording a better view.  Or perhaps I have just been thoroughly unobservant for years and have never been looking.  Maybe I have actually seen it before but just dont remember.


Whilst pondering this on the way to church I felt an analogy coming on.  😉

So here it is.......   this week we shall hear the Easter story again.  We have heard it many many times.   But on the road leading to Easter there will be things that we have not seen before.  Things God wants to show us in the well known words.   Perhaps there will be revelations that have previously been hidden from our sight by 'stuff '.   Maybe since we travelled this road the last time God has done some pruning.   He is always at work in the garden of our souls, so we shouldnt be surprised when He cuts something back to reveal a hidden truth. 

Or maybe there will be things that we can see more clearly because it happens to be winter in our spiritual walk at the moment.  Which is usually a bad thing, but funnily enough can sometimes help us to see things in stark relief. 

Or perhaps we shall be reminded of old truths we used to know but have forgotten.

It can sometimes be hard to believe that we can hear anything new in the well worn stories of Easter and Christmas.   But in my experience if we are open to hear something new, we will.   I'm going to try hard to keep my ears open this week.

lent 40 - the power of the crowd

Im watching Britain's Got Talent as Im writing this and the thing which stands out to me is the fact that the audience ( both in the theatre and I suspect at home) are willing people on to be good.  And when they are good, are genuinely delighted for them.   Susan Boyle opened the show - and I cant think that there are many people who didn't see her original audition for the show ten years ago and weren't blown away by her talent.    We love to see someone get a break, we love to see people being super good at what they do, especially when they are perceived to be a bit of an underdog.

But earlier I was listening to something on the radio about football and the sustained racist abuse suffered by black players to the point where some of them are on the verge of quitting the game they love and  have given their lives to excelling in.    What is it about humanity which can at one minute celebrate talent and the next be ridiculing and rubbishing it?   It is probably the same thing which cried Hosannah! one day and a few days later was crying  Crucify!

We are fickle, we are shallow and our allegiances can so easily switch.  If you think that's not you, you are wrong.  I have spent the past 30 years of my Christian life intermittently praying that I don't lose my faith, walk away, set it all down or simply become lukewarm.  Because I am aware that it is only the goodness of God which keeps me going.  My heart is feeble, my motivations are at best mixed, my will is weak.  If I had been in Jerusalem on the first Easter week I would undoubtably have been among the crowd shouting Hosanna, and then shouting Crucify.   The power of the crowd is a powerful thing.  Im pretty sure that the people making monkey noises at football matches wouldnt all be blatantly racist to someones face on an individual basis.  But get people together in a crowd and everyone takes courage and influence from those around them and all of a sudden you have got a Nazi Germany on your hands.

This is why its important to go to church and surround ourselves with people of a like mind who can influence and encourage us towards goodness and godliness.  We need to monitor the voices which speak to us through the media so that the loudest shout in our minds is not the shout of negativity, worldliness and evil.  We need to speak the truth loudly and in love to the world around us so that we can drown out the voices of racism, sexism, ageism, intolerance and prejudice and remind the world that God is good.  He is Love and He loves us enough to die for us.   In this Holy Week we have a chance to remind the world why Easter is celebrated.  Let's take every opportunity.

lent 39 - Queen Kateryn

Ive just finished reading a book about Henry VIII 's 6th wife Kateryn Parr.   It was a historical novel by Phillipa Gregory so a fair bit of it was fiction, but the bits for which there is historical evidence were as factual as they could be.  And I knew nothing much about this period of history so found it all very interesting.   What was most compelling about the story was the role Henry's last wife had in the Reformation.  She was the first woman in Britain to write and publish a book - and it was a book of prayers.  She later wrote another which was basically her testimony.  She had a huge input into the translation of the Bible from Latin into English and spent the four years she was Queen of England walking the tightrope of Henry's madness trying not to get beheaded whilst advocating for making the Bible and the Liturgy available to the man in the street in a language he could understand.  She was a student of the scriptures and her reading led her to understand that God wanted a relationship with everyone and that Jesus was the only mediator between God and man. She saw the superstition and profiteering of the Catholic church at that time as  keeping the common people away from God.   Henry VIII vacillated wildly between wanting a complete break from Rome and reforming the church, to burning reformers at the stake and reinstating the Mass and the priesthood.   The horrors of the persecution and torture of people who were merely trying to be true to their faith in those days is appalling.    We tend to forget so easily that only a few hundred years ago people were being burned at the stake, hanged drawn and quartered, put on the rack and tortured in this country because they believed in the Trinity.  Or didnt believe in transubstantiation.  Or prayed to the saints.  Or didnt pray to the saints.   Kateryn Parr was at the heart of the turmoil and danger of these times and her contribution to the translation of the scriptures was an act of bravery in the face of her husband's insanely dangerous political game playing.  For more about Queen Kateryn theres a good summary here.    https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/katherine-parr-marriage-henry-viii-husbands-death-writing/

I owe the fact that I have a Bible beside my bed, written in English, to many brave and sacrificial individuals who believed so fervently in my right to have access to the Word of God that they were prepared to die for it.   And of course I owe the salvation it offers to a Saviour who was prepared to carry a tonne weight of wood on his flayed bloody back and be nailed up in front of His mother as a mockery - for me.

This faith by which we live has cost, and today is still costing, lives and pain and bloodshed.  It is a deadly serious matter.  We have a responsibility to the God who hung on a tree, and all of those who gave up their lives rather than deny Him, to treasure the truth, love the Word and live fully in the freedom we enjoy.

   

Lent 38...beautiful people

I'm at the airport. People watching. There are hundreds of people here and from what I've seen so far none of them are beautiful. The folk in Newcastle airport today are pretty average. Short and tall, skinny and fat, blonde and brunette, beards,glasses,suits,jeans. All colours. Hardly any stand out. One guy has just walked past in a tracksuit so tight fitting that he looks a bit ridiculous. A middle aged couple....he just kissed her hand. Awww. But mostly these hundreds are entirely unremarkable.

Of course they are not unremarkable to their family, friends loved ones. To them they are special. And what makes them special is not how they look or what they wear. It's who they are.

So why do we as a culture put such a stupidly high value on appearance??  Why do we seek out the one beautiful person in a million and put them on billboards to sell us stuff?  Why do we spend billions on cosmetics and fashion and shoes when they really make us look absolutely no different from the next guy??  Why can't we be happy being average??

Jesus was the most attractive man who ever walked the earth.  But the Bible tells us that He was nothing much to look at.    He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Is 53:2    He didn't stand out from the crowd.  He wasnt a poster pin up.  He was entirely average on the outside.  What made Him the most beautiful person who ever lived was His heart. 

I genuinely believe that God is so sad when we compare and are dissatisfied and spend and have surgery trying to make ourselves somehow more beautiful.  He loves us. Our insides and our outsides.  But our insides are so much more important to God .  Maybe they should be for us too.

Lent 37 - tweaks

I was in the airport yesterday on the way to visit my dad. I love airports. Youget to see so much of life there...every sort of person milling about with nothing to do. God usually talks to me in the space between security and departure.  Yesterday it was about wheels

It's almost impossible to imagine that when I was a child suitcases didn't have wheels. We lugged our luggage ( maybe that's why it's called luggage!!) around with us in hernia-inducing acts of heroism.  We dreaded the hotel room being at the end of a long corridoor . Why on earth didn't anyone come up with the idea of wheels on cases ten seconds after the invention of the wheel??!!

At some point a clever someone had the genius idea of adding wheels  to cases and overnight our travels were transformed.  But yesterday I noticed that all modern cases now have four wheels. Two wheels revolutionised, four improve. With four you can walk beside your case and manoeuvre it more easily. It's a tweak. But it's a good one

Are you lugging your suitcase through life ,giving yourself back ache and limiting the places you can go?   Or perhaps you have 2 wheels which are perfectly fine and get you from a to b relatively easily.  With a small adjustment you might be able to improve your ease of travel.....but perhaps you have never looked up to see the new thing.  There are people all around you going to the same place you are going. Some of them are finding it easier than you just now.   Instead of being discouraged, why not see what they are doing which works.  What habits, lifestyle choices, attitudes etc are giving them 4 wheels instead of 2?  How can you tweak your walk to optimise it??

Has anyone ever compared the Christian life to a suitcase before? 😁. Probably. There is nothing new under the sun.

lent 36 - the God who runs

Yesterday I was in town at a major junction which had multiple sets of traffic lights waiting to cross the road.   As the green man flashed up and I started to move I saw a mother and her small daughter running towards the crossing.  The girl was probably about three.  She was holding onto her Mum's hand for all she was worth.  Mother's face was set in a look of grim determination that she was going to make the crossover before the lights changed.  She was running at quite a speed.  Her daughter was charging along beside her with a look of utter glee on her face.   In a split second I understood that children absolutely love to run - and more that that, they love to run with their parents.  But parents so rarely run.  Only when there's a good, pressing, urgent reason do most adults break into a trot.  Or unless they are exercising with purpose and a mission.   The little girl I saw yesterday was clearly rejoicing in the fact that she was getting to sprint down the road with her Mummy.  It was cute. 

As I was watching my mind was suddenly taken to the story of the prodigal son and the father who picks up his skirts and charges down the road to meet his wayward homecoming offspring.   To the Jewish listener this would have been unspeakably offensive and terrible.  Men never ran.  Fathers were supposed to be solemn, decorous, and most certainly not given to outward displays of emotion.  But in the story the father throws off all convention and cultural restrictions in order to express the passionate explosion of love and forgiveness he experiences as he sees his son coming home.   And of course in the parable the father represents God Himself.  The God who runs.

In Song of Songs the lover is described thus :

Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.

Whilst this is a love poem depicting the relationship between a woman and her lover, it is also understood to be a picture of the relationship Jesus has with His church.  And He is clearly painted as a vigorous, healthy young stag bounding and leaping over the hills.  The God who runs

Our God doesn't sit on a throne dispensing justice with his orb and sceptre in His hand.  Rather He is the shepherd who goes out looking for the lost sheep.  He is the father who sits at the window waiting and when he catches the first glimpse of a son turning around to come home, goes sprinting down the path to meet him.  He is the lover of our souls who is leaping mountain heights in order to reach us, the object of His affection.

The little girl who was so delighted to be running down the street with her Mum yesterday is a picture of you and me and the unbridled joy which is possible when we put our hands in the hand of the Father and run with Him.  Our Dad who runs.